Montserrat Black Virgin 'was white originally'

By Isambard Wilkinson in Madrid

12:00AM BST 13 Apr 2001

AMID Spain's Holy Week ceremonies, it was reported yesterday that the Black Virgin of Montserrat, one of the nation's most revered religious icons and the foremost symbol of Catalan nationalism, was originally white.

Renovators working for the government said the black hands and face of La Moreneta, a statue of the Virgin Mary in the monastery of Montserrat, 30 miles north of Barcelona, underwent a change in colour. The colour of the 12th century wooden sculpture, according to the renovators, was transformed either due to prolonged exposure to candle smoke or a chemical reaction caused by a varnish used as a paint sealant.

The full results of the tests carried out by the renovators are expected to be released in time for the festival of the Black Virgin in a fortnight. The statue, which is usually surrounded by gifts and supplicatory notes left by the thousands of pilgrims who visit the shrine annually, was repainted black by successive generations of restorers.

A series of tests, including X-rays, revealed the statue's original colour and also showed that the last repainting took place at the turn of the 18th century. La Moreneta is Catalonia's patron saint. According to legend, the Virgin appeared to shepherds in a cave near the monastery.

Over the years, the theory that the statue was not black has been aired several times and the new report appeared not to surprise Montserrat's Benedictine community. Father Josep Maria Foses said: "In Montserrat we have assumed for some time that the statue is not black."